# Allan Leinwand

> Last updated: 2026-07-06

> Chief Engineering Officer at Cloudflare. Veteran technology executive who has led engineering at Webflow, Shopify, Slack, and ServiceNow. Author of two books on computer networking. Lecturer at UC Berkeley.

Website: https://leinwand.org
Email: allan@leinwand.org
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleinwand/
X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/leinwand
GitHub: https://github.com/allan-leinwand

## Current Role

Chief Engineering Officer at Cloudflare (2025 to present). Leading and scaling Cloudflare's engineering organization, working across networking, systems, security, developer platforms, and AI to build infrastructure for the planet.

## Career

- **Cloudflare** — Chief Engineering Officer (2025 to present)
- **Webflow** — Chief Technology Officer (2023 to 2025)
- **Shopify** — Chief Technology Officer (2021 to 2023)
- **Slack** — SVP Engineering (2018 to 2021)
- **ServiceNow** — Chief Technology Officer (2012 to 2018)
- **Digital Island** — Chief Technology Officer. Helped build one of the earliest CDNs.

## Focus Areas

- Engineering leadership
- Cloud and infrastructure at scale
- Developer platforms
- Scaling organizations
- Reliability and performance
- Technical strategy

## Books

- **Network Management: A Practical Perspective** — Co-authored with Karen Fang. Two editions (1st ed. 1992, 2nd ed. 1996). Published by Addison-Wesley. A foundational guide to designing, operating, and managing computer networks. https://www.amazon.com/Network-Management-Perspective-Allan-Leinwand/dp/0201527715
- **Cisco Router Configuration** — Co-authored with Bruce Pinsky. Two editions (1st ed. 1998). A practical guide to configuring and operating Cisco routers.

## Patents

Holder of a granted patent in data routing, with additional patents pending in network route optimization.

## Teaching

- **University of California, Berkeley** — Lecturer, Network Architecture and Design. Taught graduate students the principles of designing and operating large-scale networks.

## Education

- **University of Colorado Boulder** — B.S., Computer Science

## Podcast

- **Pixels to Packages** — A podcast exploring the invisible infrastructure behind modern life, from a tap on a screen to a package at your door. Covering browsers, packets, networks, data centers, payments, fulfillment, and delivery. https://pixelstopackages.com

## Selected Writing

- **Career Hacks** — Practical career lessons on the habits and mindset shifts that quietly compound into professional growth. https://career-hacks.leinwand.workers.dev/
- **Why I Joined Cloudflare** — On coming full circle: from early Cloudflare customer to Chief Engineering Officer, and why the intersection of networking, AI, and developer platforms made this the right move. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7473064671332458496/
- **AI is reshaping developer workflows** — Interview with diginomica on how engineering teams leverage AI in development workflows, from code generation to production. https://diginomica.com/ai-reshaping-developer-workflows-webflows-cto-explains-how

## Links

- Homepage: https://leinwand.org
- Sitemap: https://leinwand.org/sitemap-index.xml
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleinwand/
- GitHub: https://github.com/allan-leinwand
- Pixels to Packages: https://pixelstopackages.com
- Career Hacks: https://career-hacks.leinwand.workers.dev/